Midnight focused and expelled the already prepared spell. He felt the imaginary structure slip out. It escaped the confines of his psyche, bore out of his skull, and silently traversed the space. Then, under his 'watchful eyes', the intangible structure engulfed a boarish creature nearby.

This process somehow resembles a bubble popping out of the surface of hot boiling water. And the boiling water is my brain! Using a metaphor to quip, Midnight reeled in this strange sensation and hid even deeper in the grass.

Oink?

The Hog-Pog vaguely sensed a disturbance. It snapped its head upward, grunted, and swiped its gaze around. It was searching for the source of this unnatural fluctuation.

Unfortunately, its species have never been famous for their mana sensitivity. Their strengths lay in their brutal force and the thickness of their hide.

Three seconds later, there wasn't even a whiff of a follow-up attack, nor did it see an opponent. Without a thread, the Hog-Pog found his actions foolish and a waste of time. It soon lost interest, bowed its head again, and continued with its prior matters. It used its pair of long and curvy tusks to casually dig the ground in search of roots and insects.

Phew

Squatted in a tuft of grass, neighboring a tree not far away, Midnight heaved a silent sigh of relief. He took notice of his actions and carefully pulled out a notebook, a quill, and a tiny bottle of black ink. All three items were recently purchased from Anna. Then he mumbled in distraction, I really can't get used to keeping virtual notes. There is just something different in the feel of paper and the scent of ink. It jolts your brain awake and makes your thoughts flow freely.

Heh, I still owe Anna 2 scops and 3 knopps. Thankfully, she is much kinder than her father. Bernard would have never agreed to add it to my tab.

He flipped the notebook open and read through some of his prior annotations. He paid particularly close attention to a certain passage.

|Spell creation and sustainment:

The mana required to imagine and piece together the symbols and magical labels to create a spell varies on the number and type of the elements, their three-dimensional positioning inside the structure, the connection with the mage, and the desired effects.

The spell structures can be classified as stable and unstable.

Unstable structures will slowly or quickly break down on their own. This can lead to a lack of effect, premature or unpredictable effects. Both are equally dangerous in the midst of battle, while the latter is dangerous per se.

Stable structures can further be divided into simple, complex, compound, and conjugated.

Simple are the basic structures of the 5 main elements - Flamma(Flame), Aqua(Water), Lutum(Dirt), Aura(Breeze), Lux(Shine)

These structures are akin to 'words'. They contain more than one 'letter', and these 'letters' can be used multiple times. Therefore the term simple here refers to the most austere form that can sustain a certain level of stability and thus exist. It doesn't refer to easy or plain.

Example: Flamma contains elements of Oxygen, Ignition, and Combustion...

Complex are these structures, which are based on one of the five elements, but involve auxiliary symbols. Using the past comparison, they are 'words' with a deeper and more precise meaning.

For example to the simple Flamma, which normally produces an instantaneous spark with fixed characteristics, one can add elements regarding Temperature, Color, Shape, Size, Position, Movement Patterns, etc. These can affect the aspects of the materialized phenomenon.

The borderline between complex and compound spells is blurry. However, generally, compound spell designs refer to structures that greatly diverge from the physical phenomena materialized from complex spells. I will list a couple of examples...

Gelum(Frost) is a compound of Aqua. Based on the elements in water it stresses on lower temperature and pressure to create a freeze effect.

Tenebris(Darkness) is a compound of Lux with the addition of the Nil element. In a sense, pure darkness is the lack of light. Therefore it can't be classified as one of the main elements.

Fulmen(Bolt) can be considered a compound of Aura and Flamma, but it contains some unique 'letters' like the labels of Polarity and Electron.

...

Finally, conjugated spells refer to 'sentences' formed from many words. In extreme cases, such spells may even contain a whole story inside them. Such spells may materialize unimaginably complex, successive, or simultaneous phenomena.

...|

Sigh, if only I had the knowledge, insight, and experience to grasp the cure Remedium.

Although it is the most basic health spell, it is a compound of all four elements. I don't even know where to begin analyzing its possible design. Otherwise, I wouldn't need to depend on that disgusting salve to patch my wounds. Heh, let's first try to keep myself from harm.

Midnight frowned, dipped the quill in ink, and wrote a few more sentences beneath the composition.

|After the initial taxing on the mana pool to create a spell, the stable structure can be maintained relatively easily. It requires only a minute amount of mana, but quite a lot of concentration.

Besides, no matter if the symbols ingrained in the structure are those of a burst or link connection, the spell won't activate until the magician wills it. This points out that spells can be used as traps in certain conditions and environments. However, enemies with higher mana sensitivity can still detect such dormant spells! Even those who are weaker in this aspect will feel a slight disturbance.

As for whether the spell-creation process can be sensed, this is yet to be determined...|

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Closing his notebook, Midnight carefully returned all items to his bag and glanced toward the Hog-Pog. This boar-like monster was still happily digging in the ground, making occasional grunting noises to express itself.

Forgive me for what I am about to do. This is all in the name of science!

Yes, magic indeed seems to be very similar to science. It has elements of physics, biology, and chemistry, however, it is based on a bizarre and illusive language.

Well, based on my current observation, it definitely involves some sort of higher dimension, the psyche domain, and the primordial energy source known as mana. I suppose it is a mixture of spiritual and material aspects.

Hehe, I have seen a few books describe mana as spirituality. This sounds so much better. Mana has this cliche, third-rate-novel-like image to it. It makes me cringe.

He quipped, narrowed his eyes, and fully concentrated on his spell. Its existence felt like the buzzing of mosquitos in the periphery of his mind. It constantly drew a bit of his attention, prompting him not to forget and pump mana for sustenance. It annoyed him, but at least the amount required was just a tiny fraction of the initial energy investment.

This time he had chosen the neater burst connection. When he drew the structure, he had already attached the necessary mana to the spell. All he had to do now was snap his finger and catalyze the process.

Flamma, with a thought, Midnight followed this idea. He instantly felt the complex structure merging with the energy infused inside, and sensed its activation.

Empowered by this boost injection, the numerous symbols and magical labels trembled, lit up, and melded into one. This prompted the structure to contract, descend, and fuse into reality.

Burst Sizzle

Out of nowhere, a violent flame sparked into existence. It was scorching hot and glaringly red as it set ablaze the unsuspecting creature. It was an inferno. One that seemed to break through an invisible veil and reach its hands out from the pits of hell.

Bang!

The Hog-Pog jumped in the air, drawing an arch of beautiful flames. Then it crashed down and rolled all over in the grass.

Oink! Grunt! Grunt!

In a second it had turned into a smoldering sphere that cried and screamed, trashing violently in a desperate attempt to quench the flames. However, its actions didn't help at all. They only spread the fire to the moist green carpet, as the grass stalks sizzled, dried, and blackened.

The heat was unforgiving.

The Hog-Pog's fur curled up and charred to black. The skin beneath was scorched and blistered, the fats bubbled up and melted, and its eyes burst out like broken eggs for a nice delicious omelet. The blood and liquid gushing out of its blinded empty sockets instantly evaporated with a sizzling noise.

A couple of meters away, Midnight stumbled to the ground and squeezed his eyes. The heatwave had already reached him. And it invaded his eyes, nose, mouth, and lungs. Their mucus and the epithelium beneath turned arid. And with this wave of air, a disgusting stench of burning flesh and hair spread as well.

Cough Gasp Cough

Bewildered, Midnight gasped for air and coughed. He turned to the side, and used his hands to prop himself, then gagged.

Blergh

The apple he had eaten less than an hour ago, acidic stomach juices, and saliva came out of his nose and mouth and piled in the grass. He teared up, and a few crystal clear droplets slid down and were added to the stinking mixture.

Grunt

Not far away, the Hog-Pog squirmed a few more times. Its pain, surprise, confusion, and resentment slowly numbed and vanished. Its violent, chaotic movements stopped, replaced by tiny twitches. It was the residue of neuronal activity and muscle spasms that followed death.

Blergh

Midnight vomited until his stomach cramped and there was nothing else to leave his system. Dizzy and perplexed, he used his sleeve to clean his mouth and forced himself to stand up. Then he suppressed his disgust and guilt and reluctantly approached the creature. Or to be precise it's pitiful remains.

The Hog-Pog had turned into a gruesome charred corpse, with barely any semblance of its true appearance.

"..."

Fighting with his churning stomach, Midnight bent down and touched the corpse. It was scalding hot and crumbling, but the fire had died down.

I am sorry, that was not supposed to happen.

Phew, thankfully I didn't start a prairie fire. Otherwise, I may have had to flee Lesotte. Heh, not that I can flee without permission. The AI hasn't provided a direction as to how we can leave the newbie village yet.

Damn, the Hog-Pog is as good as ruined. I wasted its life without anything to gain. Sigh, and I was somehow eager to try and dismember a creature for the first time...Was it a problem with my spell?

He forced himself to keep his stinging eyes on the sad and ever-silent monster, recalled, and scrutinized the structure he had made. It was a compound spell based on the flickering flame - Flamma.

I used the base elements and augmented them with the insignias for temperature, density, and size.

The fact that the structure reached stability means there were no major problems with the positioning and the symbolic meaning of the elements inside the spell. Yes, it ultimately followed all my orders. The phenomenon was Flame, just a bit, ugh a lot more exaggerated than my expectations.

Then the issue was the mana? Or could it be the target? Are Hog-Pogs easy to ignite? A higher fat content or something...

Because it was a relatively simple structure, he rejected his initial speculation.

The night after his peculiar lucky encounter, Midnight first made sure that the stirrings caused by the public announcement were not far-reaching. Besides the chaos, confusion and wild guessing in the chatter, no one had any idea who was Player X, or how they met a Fae. Therefore, he didn't bother with this topic and considered other things.

First was the true identity of the Shapeshifting Fae, and second was his newly gained knowledge and insight.

Regarding the former, Midnight did have some guesses. A few items he remembered purchasing from the General Store were missing in his bag. Unfortunately, his memories were too jumbled and intermittent. He had to give up thinking.

Then for most of the 48+ hours until now, he had given his whole attention to the latter. Through numerous attempts, experiments, questions, analysis, errors, and gains, he had grown to be more or less adept in simple magic. However, the field was too profound and he had plenty more to grasp and master.

Hmm, I definitely have to keep in mind the characteristics of the enemy, as well as the environment, when casting magic. Preparedness averts peril. Thankfully, it's still the early summer. The weather is not extremely hot and dry. Otherwise, I may have perished from stupidity. And roasting is probably one of the worst kinds of death even with the pain reduced to 35% of its true value....

Still, no matter how flammable the Hog-Pog was, the initial phenomenon was too excessive. Excluding other elements involved, the problem was the mana. I probably infused too much. Or could it be that the blank primordial energy still has some individual characteristics? Unless it is spirituality drawn directly from the air, the one inside my pool is not exactly pure.

Hmm, that is logical. It is impossible for the body and the mind to not affect the energy inside. All interactions bring a change...

I haven't used flame-based spells that often. As for the other elements, I haven't noticed any problems yet. I suppose this makes me talented in fire magic?

Yes, the real reason is probably a mixture of both problems with the quantity and quality. I should keep it all in mind and verify it in the future.

Midnight stood up, let his eyelids droop, and sensed the vicinity.

Nearby monsters seem to have sensed the previous commotion. Two of them. They are carefully approaching...

He opened his eyes and his lips curled up to form a wicked smile. He was seeking more experimental objects, and now two had volunteered. Wasn't this a chance?

He rubbed his hands in glee, and generously whispered, "I am not so unreasonable as to decline this invitation. Besides I still have a debt to pay. Heh, the Hog-Pog was wasted, but, perhaps, I still have a chance to try my hands at harvesting materials."

Suddenly he felt excited. He had joined Euclex to escape his predicament and find a way to earn a living. He wanted to set his parents' hearts at ease. However, it would be a lie if he said that he didn't have some expectations. After nearly a week, he was now absolutely certain that Euclex was indeed an opportunity. Not only to function as a normal human being but to grasp his dreams as well. And Midnight has long since longed to be a craftsman.